Sci 110 Essay

Ky-Mani Harrison                                                                                                              9/19/2016

Professor Millet                                                                                                                 SCI 110-01

Science has large range of interesting components that make it up as a whole. Psychology is a vast and exciting field of study that is comprised of a plethora of branches. The ways in which it has been used to further improve society and examine individuals is nearly endless and it will continue to be that way as long as there are more mysteries of the brain to be discovered. Psychology can best be generally described as the study of human behavior and mental process of the brain. One of the biggest psychological theories that are still debated to this present day is known as the nature vs nurture concept which has a multitude of supporters on both of its sides.The nurture aspect of psychology proposed that one is not simply born with innate characteristics that are permanently present for their entire life, rather this meant that people are heavily influenced by the environment that surrounds them and that is what causes them to develop as a person and change. For example enlightened scholars such as Aristotle and John Locke believed that the mind is a blank slate that can absorb information through its senses. It makes sense that John Locke would support the nurture aspect of psychology that is why he became a major catalyst in persuading Americans to free themselves from the colonial grasp of Great Britain. The opposing nature perspective of the concept provides a more stagnant view of a person's growth in life and what they can do. Philosophical thinkers such as Plato, Descartes and and Darwin placed their faith in genes. These are people that believed that character and intelligence were inherited from their parents, their ideas were intuitive rather than taken from the environment and that their physical traits, behaviors and instincts were obtained from the process of natural selection. Now that both nature and nurture views of the this concept have explained one can say that it is without a doubt a difficult decision to chose a side to argue for, however one can find the conviction to remain neutral on this concept. The reasoning for this is because although our external environment has an enormous impact on the way way grow up and how we behave, genes do not reside within the cells of our body in a state of futility. Up to a certain extent people are born with natural instincts for example a newborn child’s first response to a very loud sound is a roaring cry all children do this naturally. On the other hand children learn that if they keep crying then they can eventually get what they want.  If you take a child's bib toy away they throw a fit and let you know how upset they are and won’t stop crying until they get their toy back. In retrospect after considering different studies that have been completed in the past and thinking with an open mind it can best be concluded that people's behavior is not completely based on their DNA and not completely influenced by their environment.